Strongest winter storm in at least 140 years whallops Southwest U.S.

The most powerful low pressure system in 140 years of record keeping swept through the Southwest U.S. yesterday, bringing deadly flooding, tornadoes, hail, hurricane force winds, and blizzard conditions. We expect to get powerful winter storms affecting the Southwest U.S. during strong El Niño events, but yesterday's storm was truly epic in its size and intensity. The storm set all-time low pressure records over roughly 10 - 15% of the U.S.--over southern Oregon, and most of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Old records were broken by a wide margin in many locations, most notably in Los Angeles, where the old record of 29.25" set January 17, 1988, was shattered by .18" (6 mb). Bakersfield broke its record by .30" (10 mb). The record-setting low spawned an extremely intense cold front that rumbled thought the Southwest, and winds ahead of the cold front reached sustained speeds of hurricane force--74 mph--last night at Apache Junction, 40 miles east of Phoenix. Wind gusts as high as 94 mph were recorded in Ajo, Arizona, and a Personal Weather Station in Summerhaven (on top of Mt. Lemmon next to Tucson) recorded sustained winds of 67 mph, gusting to 86 mph, before the power failed. Prescott recorded sustained winds at 52 mph, gusting to 67 as the cold front passed, and high winds plunged visibility to zero in blowing dust on I-10 connecting Phoenix and Tucson. The storm spawned one possible tornado in Arizona, which touched down at 8:32 pm MST in Phoenix near Desert Ridge Mall. No damage or injuries were reported. If verified, it would be only the 7th January tornado in Arizona since record keeping began in 1950.

Figure 1. Radar reflectivity from the Phoenix Doppler radar at the time of the Phoenix tornado. The tornado touched down under the circle with a "+" inside it. The Doppler velocity image did not show any rotation to the clouds in the vicinity.

Three tornadoes in CaliforniaThree tornadoes were reported in California yesterday. A small EF0 twister hit the east side of Ventura, leaving a 1.5 mile damage path. Another tornado hit Santa Barbara, downing trees and power poles. The most damaging California tornado yesterday touched down just west of Blythe, on the Arizona-California border, at 4:31 pm MST. The twister crossed I-10, blowing three semi trucks over, ripping the roofs off houses, and downing power lines. I-10 was closed for several hours to clear the debris and toppled trucks.

Two tornadoes also hit Southern California on Tuesday. A sheriff's deputy spotted a possible tornado in Goleta that caused some roof damage, and another tornado hit Huntington Beach, damaging boats and buildings and flipping cars.

If all five tornadoes are confirmed as genuine by the National Weather Service, it will tie the record of most January California tornadoes. The all-time record for most California tornadoes in a single day is seven, set on April 1, 1996, and November 9, 1982.

Figure 2. Radar reflectivity from the Los Angeles Doppler radar at the time of the Santa Barbara tornado.Figure 3. Storm-relative radial velocity from the Los Angeles Doppler radar at the time of the Santa Barbara tornado. The area of yellow and orange colors, lying right next to a region of blues and greens just west of Santa Barbara shows that the winds in that region were moving towards and away from the radar in a very tight area, signifying the presence of a rotating thunderstorm and possible tornado.

The storm will continue to bring heavy rain and snow to many portions the Southwest today, then wind down on Saturday. A new storm is expected to move ashore over Northern California on Sunday night, but this storm will not be as intense. Another storm is also possible next Friday, January 29, but it appears that a renewed battering by a long succession of storms like we had this week will not occur next week.

Tornadoes, severe weather in the SouthSevere weather associated with a separate storm brought damaging winds, hail, and tornadoes to portions of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida last night. Two tornadoes were reported, one in Tennessee, and one in Alabama, near Huntsville. The Huntsville tornado injured approximately six people, and cut power to 10,000 people. The storm responsible for the severe weather has moved out to sea, and no further severe weather is expected today. A slight chance of severe weather is expected Saturday over Arkansas and Mississippi, and there is also a severe weather threat for Georgia and surrounding states on Sunday.

Portlight's Paul Timmons to appear on NBC and CNNPortlight.org, the disaster-relief charity that has sprung up from the hard work and dedication of many members of the wunderground.com community, has successfully shipped medical equipment and a water filtration unit capable of supplying the needs of 3,500 people per day to the Dominican Republic. The relief supplies were trucked to Haiti via road, and have made it to the earthquake zone. The supplies have been targeted to go to those with disabilities, or to those who are living in areas where the main aid efforts have been inadequate. Portlight is working through the local Catholic Church, which is probably best positioned to deliver private aid donations to those in need. Paul Timmons, leader of the Portlight relief efforts, is scheduled to appear on NBC news later today, and on CNN news tomorrow, to discuss Portlight's efforts.

Figure 5. Walkers and medical supplies for Haiti getting ready to ship from the Portlight warehouse in Atlanta.

Please visit the Portlight.org blog to learn more. Floodman's blog has the latest info on Portlight's plan for Haitian relief. The Reeve Foundation, founded by Christopher and Dana Reeve has awarded Portlight Strategies a $10,000 Quality of of Life grant to assist in the relief efforts in Haiti. This is very big and will allow Portlight to pursue more aggressive relief efforts over the course of the next few weeks.

For those of you more interested in helping out with the long-term rebuilding of Haiti's shattered infrastructure from the quake, I recommend a contribution to Lambi Fund of Haiti, a charity that is very active in promoting reforestation efforts, use of alternative fuels, and infrastructure improvements at a grass-roots level in Haiti. I've developed a great respect for the work they do in the country in the five years I've been a supporter.

A Pacific storm (usually warm) came and dropped snow in Southern California in area which rarely see snow. This was not even an "insider slider" (lingo for a northern, non-Pacific cold jet stream). Snow days for schools are rampant and there are many accidents on the roadways. Our snow is not the typical fluff, but very wet and slick.

I took a drive this morning to document some of this amazing weather we're having in Arizona. My path took me over to the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix and I beheld some sights that I don't expect to see again. (HDR)

1st and 10 at NO 33 C.Taylor right guard to NO 33 for no gain (R.Ayodele). 2nd and 10 at NO 33 A.Peterson right end to NO 33 for no gain (R.Ayodele, S.Ellis). Timeout #2 by MIN at 00:19. 3rd and 10 at NO 33 PENALTY on MIN, Offensive 12 On-field, 5 yards, enforced at NO 33 - No Play. 3rd and 15 at NO 38 B.Favre pass deep middle intended for S.Rice INTERCEPTED by T.Porter at NO 22. T.Porter to NO 48 for 26 yards (J.Sullivan).

I could understand calling those first 2 plays if you were on the.... 23 yard line. But, at the 33? It's a 50 yard FG! Get 10 more yards closer...gosh, you were moving the ball!

Sorry to get so off-topic.

EDIT>>>One more thing...Minnesota calls a timeout and then there's 12 men in the huddle? WTH?

I was also thinking I can't see Peyton Manning performing as badly in that last minute.

Favre is a great QB...but, he takes too many chances at times on throws. Throwing back against you is too risky. Should have run it Favre! FG kicker would have had about a 45-47 yarder. Unless he chokes, you win. Now you gotta live with it!

Congrats to the Saints. Good luck in the SB, but I think you're going down vs. Peyton.

The ONLY reason you would have a 40-year-old quarterback is for those situations. If the 40-year-old quarterback is going to make rookie mistakes, there's no sense having him on the team.

It's sad for Favre, but that may have been the worst interception ever. Terrible, terrible decision.

I know they dominated the Saints and basically gave away a victory. Too many turnovers really done them in. Your right Farve could have ran another 5 or 8 yards.

I was just thinking...maybe he was hesitant because of his ankle.

I was also thinking I can't see Peyton Manning performing as badly in that last minute.

Favre is a great QB...but, he takes too many chances at times on throws. Throwing back against you is too risky. Should have run it Favre! FG kicker would have had about a 45-47 yarder. Unless he chokes, you win. Now you gotta live with it!

Congrats to the Saints. Good luck in the SB, but I think you're going down vs. Peyton.

Quoting Jeff9641:What a game last night. The Vikings flat out handed the Saints a win last night. I have never seen a game end in such a fashion. All the Vikings had to do was kick a field goal and then it would have been over.

Vikings had the ball on the Saints 30 with just under a minute left. They got too conservative...then the 12 men on the field...then Favre could have picked up at least 5 yards running on that 3rd down play, instead he throws a pick. Plus the Vikings let about 30 seconds run off of the clock....I'm like...what are you doing...save your time...get to at least the 20 yard line!!!!!

(1)Poor clock management.(2)Too conservative.(3)They had the game won.(4)They may have choked.

Good morning everyone! I will be watching a decent squall line that has developed over Central Florida and the Southwest GOM with an approaching cold front over the next several hours. It appears to be maintaining its intensity quite well as seen in the regional radar below.

Now, in analyzing the current environment preceding the squall line, the atmosphere has become unstable enough to produce a broken band of scattered thunderstorm action off the SE Florida coast. With a strong southerly wind, moisture should continue to increase before the front as short range models show precipitable water (PW) approaching 1.75 to 2 inches. This should be sufficient to maintain rainfall on the front. But with this wind, it may limit heating since there will be mixing occurring which is unfavorable for severe weather.

So, all in all, expect some good rains, strong gusty winds, and possibly a few strong storms across South Florida late this morning and into the afternoon before much cooler weather arrives across the state tonight.

Just a quick post from Winter Springs. We are still waiting for line of strong storms. I too was awakened by my weather radio. Have only heard of one tornado warning and it is to the north of me. These storms are moving at 60 miles per hour. Will go get another cup of coffee and just wait. Ready to move into safe room if need to.

Morning Aqua and all you other guys that are up watching these storms.

As torrential rains pelted wildfire-stripped hillsides and flooded highways, a team of scientists hunkered down at the California Institute of Technology to work on a "Frankenstorm" scenario — a mother lode wintry blast that could potentially sock the Golden State.

The hypothetical but plausible storm would be similar to the 1861-1862 extreme floods that temporarily moved the state capital from Sacramento to San Francisco and forced the then-governor to attend his inauguration by rowboat.